Monday, June 21, 2010

When Fishing for the Popular isn't Enough: A Review of the Pinoy-French Contemporary Dance Week

I don’t want to pretend that my judgment of art is more sophisticated than everyone else, because it’s not. Let’s just say that I’ve been fortunate to catch performances other than local TV’s cheaper than ever shows like Party Pilipinas and Diz Iz It. (When I say catch I meant I preferred to try other visuals.)

Life’s about choices anyway, like ‘Anything less is less than a reckless act’ by Donna Miranda implied through its choose-between-the-two lectures. The lecture was part of the Pinoy-French Contemporary Dance Week, a French Embassy and Alliance Française de Manille collaboration with the Philippine Educational Theater Association.

On the side of France, they brought Lin Yuan Shang and his choreography here to be witnessed by the Filipino audience. Mr. Lin is a Paris-based dancer-choreographer and Beijing Opera School educated.

The performance started with a witty intro from Donna Capili. And just before it became dragging, she asked the audience to either stay where we were and continue the “listen to me” setup or enter the theater and watch an odd, silent (the audio gets on half way but still, uhh, odd) video about two dancers. Life, why do I always have to make hard decisions?

Break.

Mr. Lin’s performance, Kung Fu Dancing, came in next. The movements were too peaceful I tried to suppress yawns in between. The texts and videos projected in the background were awakening, though.

During the Q&A, Donna raised a very good point about contexts. She said artists always tried not to guard one's context and let the audience make their own interpretation. Mr. Lin, who was too apologetic of his un-fluency in English, remarked that he pulled some stunts for Jackie Chan (which I personally shrugged off being a Jackie Chan fan and a believer that he does all his stunts as what he claims).

Judging on my pop culture preference, dance is least on my list, to be very honest. But I gave the discipline a chance this time. Although I was not totally impressed, I know that it has charged me another perspective worth considering. While some common dance types—jazz, hip-hop, modern, etc—are frequently exploited on TV (of which above TV show mentions are notorious), contemporary dance could be a good reference to counter-balance our views. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to reach 30 asking “Contemporary dance, what??”

Sponsor Alert!

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Bad News: All 90 capsules are best before July 2010 (07/10). It’s like giving tons of almost rotten apples for disposal in a week or two. Shall I consume those 90 in two weeks? Please advise.

What's in a name?

Has been champion of great fights of the world. His greatest achievement so far is his collection of doubts and misses. He believes he's fit for harvest anytime in the next generation. Delayed gratification rules his drive.